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ethics

Bioethics Forum Essay

Plan, Safeguard, Care: An Ethical Framework for Health Care Institutions Responding to Immigrant Enforcement Actions

The framework below outlines three foundational ethical duties of health care institutions that can be enacted by leaders through policies, processes, and communication with their workforce: (1) the duty to plan for foreseeable situations with impact on patient care and institutional operations, (2) the duty to safeguard patient populations and the health care workforce, and (3) the duty of care, long understood as nonabandonment of patients.
Read Plan, Safeguard, Care: An Ethical Framework for Health Care Institutions Responding to Immigrant Enforcement Actions
Bioethics Forum Essay
stained glass image of jesus

What Does AI Jesus Teach Us?

AI Jesus is just one of many recent examples in which artificial intelligence systems have taken on roles that have always seemed to require human beings. One can worry what these creations will eventually do to us humans. What will be left for humans to do?
Read What Does AI Jesus Teach Us?
Bioethics Forum Essay
man sitting on bed, woman with ipad

Ethical Considerations for Using AI to Predict Suicide Risk

Predicting a patient's suicide risk is hard. Can AI do better than a clinician?
Read Ethical Considerations for Using AI to Predict Suicide Risk
Bioethics Forum Essay
gavel, stethoscope on american flag

The Reactionary Recommendations of Project 2025: Why Bioethicists Should Care

Given its concern with making health and health care more equitable and just, bioethics should pay attention to the Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, best known as Project 2025....
Read The Reactionary Recommendations of Project 2025: Why Bioethicists Should Care
Bioethics Forum Essay
Department of Health and Human services building

When Bioethics is Like Surfing: Changing Federal Policy

I was honored (and honestly a bit surprised) to play a pivotal role in a recent federal milestone for patients’ rights. On April 1, the Department of Health and Human...
Read When Bioethics is Like Surfing: Changing Federal Policy
Bioethics Forum Essay
medical students studying a cadaver

Say Their Names: Unclaimed Bodies and Untrustworthiness in Medical Science

A recent NBC investigative series titled “Dealing the Dead" revealed that thousands of unclaimed bodies were used by the University of North Texas Health Science Center for scientific research and medical education, and to generate profit. These findings raise important ethical questions around the need for ongoing transparency and accountability concerning the use of the deceased in medical research and education.
Read Say Their Names: Unclaimed Bodies and Untrustworthiness in Medical Science
Bioethics Forum Essay
incarcerated black man in ICU

Breaking Boundaries: Reframing Clinical Ethics Discussions of Health Care for Incarcerated Patients 

Clinical ethicists should engage with the injustices of mass incarceration in the United States.
Read Breaking Boundaries: Reframing Clinical Ethics Discussions of Health Care for Incarcerated Patients 
Bioethics Forum Essay
headline collage of obesity drug names

What Is Preventable About Obesity?

The suggestion that obesity is a preventable disease has been weighing heavily on my mind ever since I read a recent article in the Hastings Center Report. The article claims to focus on “ethical, policy, and public health concerns” related to anti-obesity medications, but there is a strong undercurrent of bias throughout. As an endocrinologist who specializes in medical weight management, my clinical experience informs my understanding that obesity is almost never entirely preventable, but bias against those with obesity certainly is.
Read What Is Preventable About Obesity?
Bioethics Forum Essay
closeup of gavel held by a judge

Is Castration of Sex Offenders Ever Ethically Justified?

Louisiana recently became the first U.S. state to permit judges to order surgical castration of sex offenders.
Read Is Castration of Sex Offenders Ever Ethically Justified?
Bioethics Forum Essay
african american man in pink shirt on computer

Was This Job Market Study Ethical?

Was this experiment ethically problematic? Or was it a useful study involving common practices on Twitter?
Read Was This Job Market Study Ethical?
Bioethics Forum Essay
hands holding and touching cellphone

Griefbots Are Here, Raising Questions of Privacy and Well-being

Hugh Culber is talking to his abuela, asking why her mofongo always came out better than his even though he is using her recipe. She replies that it never came...
Read Griefbots Are Here, Raising Questions of Privacy and Well-being
Bioethics Forum Essay
Neuralink company image

The Neuralink Patient Behind the Musk

The sole virtue of Elon Musk’s report on X, formerly known as Twitter, of the first in-human brain implant by his company, Neuralink, is its brevity: “The first human received...
Read The Neuralink Patient Behind the Musk
Bioethics Forum Essay
SpongeBob Squarepants and other cartoon characters

SpongeBob, Slime, and Brain Injuries: A Dangerous Combination for Kids

For the first time, this year’s Super Bowl will have an alternate telecast for children featuring beloved cartoon characters. But as public health researchers, we are alarmed by efforts to promote the full-body collisions of tackle football to young children with animated mascots, enhanced augmented reality, bright colors, 3D iconography, and other child-friendly symbols.
Read SpongeBob, Slime, and Brain Injuries: A Dangerous Combination for Kids
Event

What Is a ‘Serious Genetic Condition’?

Vardit Ravitsky, Ph.D., President and CEO of the Hastings Center, will deliver the keynote address, “What Is a ‘Serious Genetic Condition’?,” at the eighth annual reproductive ethics conference at the...
Read What Is a ‘Serious Genetic Condition’?
Event

Rebuilding Trust in Science

Since before the pandemic we have been experiencing a breakdown in trust in science and health care. Explore the reasons for this crisis, with authors of a just-released Hastings Center special...
Read Rebuilding Trust in Science
Bioethics Forum Essay
illustration of chimeras

My Mom’s Myeloma and the Fire-Breathing Chimaera

Just one month ago, my mom received an intravenous infusion of CAR T-cells, which have become mythical creatures in my imagination.
Read My Mom’s Myeloma and the Fire-Breathing Chimaera
Event
ai_health_care_created_by dalle

Can AI Promote Our Health & Well-Being?

Medicine has been at the forefront of recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), from image recognition to generative AI. Watch leaders in AI, ethics, and health as they discuss the...
Read Can AI Promote Our Health & Well-Being?
Event
HC president, blond woman

Constructing an Ethics Framework for AI in Biomedical Research

Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky will discuss “Constructing an Ethics Framework for AI in Biomedical Research,” or ethics at the intersection of artificial intelligence and health care, at the 2024 Rothenberg...
Read Constructing an Ethics Framework for AI in Biomedical Research
Bioethics Forum Essay
child's broken arm in cast

Our System for Reporting Child Abuse is Unethical

The system of mandatory reporting of child abuse is rife with ethical problems and can lead to unjustified custody loss.
Read Our System for Reporting Child Abuse is Unethical
Bioethics Forum Essay
pig heart transplantation

Myopic View of Xenotransplantation

. A report last week in the New York Times of a pig heart transplant performed at the University of Maryland Medical Center exemplifies a common myopic view of xenotransplantation research.
Read Myopic View of Xenotransplantation
Event

The Future of Bioethics: Challenges, Visions and Opportunities

Join a discussion on The Future of Bioethics: Challenges, Visions and Opportunities with the new President of The Hastings Center, Vardit Ravitsky. Speaker: Vardit Ravitsky, Ph.D, President and CEO of The...
Read The Future of Bioethics: Challenges, Visions and Opportunities
Event

Can AI Improve Health Care for Everyone?

Fast-moving developments in artificial intelligence have far-reaching implications for caregivers, patients, and the entire healthcare system. Will the introduction of AI systems improve diagnosis, treatment, and research, bringing better and...
Read Can AI Improve Health Care for Everyone?
Event
robot helping older woman take medication

Should AI Care For Us?

Ethics, AI, and Society Increased attention to the widespread applications of artificial intelligence—and large language models such as ChatGPT in particular—has raised questions about the integration of AI into caregiving...
Read Should AI Care For Us?
Event

Bioethics and the Rules-Based International Order

Jonathan Moreno, PhD, the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania will deliver a special lecture at The Hastings Center at 1 pm on Wednesday, April...
Read Bioethics and the Rules-Based International Order
Bioethics Forum Essay
woman life freedom demonstrators in Iran

Theocracy Is Closer Than It Appears

On a cloudy April afternoon, in my home in western Pennsylvania, a headline catches my eye: A federal judge in Texas suspended FDA approval of mifepristone. This abortion-inducing drug has been on the market for more than 20 years. Although the decision is presented with a secular and legal façade, like other recent antiabortion court rulings and legislation, a solid religious motive is at play.
Read Theocracy Is Closer Than It Appears
Bioethics Forum Essay
doctor calculating medical bill

In Search of an Ethical Constraint on Hospital Revenue

Hospitals' tactics for maximizing revenue may be legal, but they raise ethical concerns.
Read In Search of an Ethical Constraint on Hospital Revenue
Bioethics Forum Essay
ChatGPT holding knife

My Friend ChatGPT: Fun to Talk With, Not Yet to Be Trusted

How long does it take to trust someone? Think twice before getting too close to your chatty friend ChatGPT.
Read My Friend ChatGPT: Fun to Talk With, Not Yet to Be Trusted
Bioethics Forum Essay
doctor using tablet with AI

ChatGPT in the Clinic? Medical AI Needs Ethicists

There's a lot of excitement about the possibilities of sophisticated, conversational AI in medicine, but we are already seeing problematic examples of its use. The insight of ethicists is sorely needed.
Read ChatGPT in the Clinic? Medical AI Needs Ethicists
Event
blue and yellow image of DNA double helix

Toward Navigating Danger and Promise Together–Editing the Human Genome

A frank look at the ethics of breakthrough genetic technologies TRANSCRIPT A just-concluded summit looked at the state of human genome editing, where the scandal of China’s CRISPR babies was...
Read Toward Navigating Danger and Promise Together–Editing the Human Genome
Event

“What is Bioethics and Why Does It Matter?”

Hastings Center President Mildred Solomon to teach Master Class at West Point: “What is Bioethics and Why Does It Matter?”
Read “What is Bioethics and Why Does It Matter?”
Event
Carolyn P. Neuhaus, white woman with light brown hair, smiling

Welcome Back Carolyn!

Read Welcome Back Carolyn!
Bioethics Forum Essay
white money behind a steal fence, grasping onto the crossed bars

Primates in Medical Research: A Matter of Convenience, not Sound Science

What are the current and future potential uses of nonhuman primates in research? The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is examining this question.
Read Primates in Medical Research: A Matter of Convenience, not Sound Science
Bioethics Forum Essay
young ginger boy snuggled with green blankets laying down on a bag, facing the camera

Ethical Placemaking for Refugees

More than 4 million people have fled from war and terror in Ukraine. They are among the 70 million forcibly displaced people worldwide. What is brazenly clear is not only the impotence of the existing international apparatus designed to protect them, but also its asymmetries.
Read Ethical Placemaking for Refugees
Bioethics Forum Essay

MAID Without Borders? Oregon Drops the Residency Requirement

Oregon, which legalized medical aid in dying (MAID) in 1997, has dropped the requirement that had limited MAID access to residents of the state. What are the ethical and social implications of this policy change?
Read MAID Without Borders? Oregon Drops the Residency Requirement
Event
Amy Bloom

Love and Loss with Amy Bloom

Bestselling author Amy Bloom‘s world was altered forever when an MRI indicated that her husband Brian had Alzheimer’s disease. Together, led by Brian, Brian and Amy made the decision to travel to Switzerland to access an assisted dying process...
Read Love and Loss with Amy Bloom
Bioethics Forum Essay

Resilience and the Twin Medical Catastrophes of War and Pandemic

As I sit here in my office at the Slovak Medical University in Bratislava, my colleagues are experiencing great moral anguish because of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Simultaneously, we are also confronting the Omicron wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The war complicates and burdens health care here and in other border nations exponentially, and especially so in combination with the pandemic.
Read Resilience and the Twin Medical Catastrophes of War and Pandemic
Bioethics Forum Essay

Research Ethics Meets the New Marketplace

A bill for $476 for inquiring about participating in a medical research study? This is no joke.
Read Research Ethics Meets the New Marketplace
Bioethics Forum Essay

Should Clinicians Ask Hospitalized Covid Patients Why They Aren’t Vaccinated?

The role of doctors, nurses and other clinicians is to treat patients without passing judgment and to fulfill their fiduciary duty. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has muddled these obligations.
Read Should Clinicians Ask Hospitalized Covid Patients Why They Aren’t Vaccinated?
Bioethics Forum Essay

Individuals Declared Brain-Dead Remain Biologically Alive

A remarkable experiment raises anew questions about whether brain-death is really death.
Read Individuals Declared Brain-Dead Remain Biologically Alive
Bioethics Forum Essay

Should Pro-Choice Advocates Compromise on Abortion?

I'd be happy to go along with a ban on elective abortion after 15 weeks if, but only if, certain conditions accompanied it.
Read Should Pro-Choice Advocates Compromise on Abortion?
Bioethics Forum Essay

Polygenic Embryo Screening: Ethical and Legal Considerations

Last month, Bloomberg reported on what seems to be the first child born following a new kind of genome-wide screening. Four embryos were screened, and the embryo selected for implantation was the one given the best genetic odds of avoiding heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and schizophrenia in adulthood. The news has been met with some concerns about the degree of control we may now have over future generations.
Read Polygenic Embryo Screening: Ethical and Legal Considerations
Bioethics Forum Essay
gloved hands injecting a vaccine into an exposed shoulder

Human Challenge Studies for Covid-19 Vaccine: Questions about Benefits and Risks

Experts in infectious disease and public health warn that the Covid-19 pandemic will be with us until there is an effective vaccine, possibly 12 to 18 months in the future. This situation has given rise to calls for human challenge studies, in which healthy volunteers are injected with an experimental vaccine and then infected with the disease to test the vaccine’s efficacy. Is this ethically justifiable?
Read Human Challenge Studies for Covid-19 Vaccine: Questions about Benefits and Risks
Bioethics Forum Essay

Ethical Responsibility in Publishing Research Results on Covid-19 Treatments

There is little doubt about the urgent need for Covid-19 treatment. But premature publication of definitive recommendations based on inappropriate conclusions grounded in scant, hastily-acquired data serve only at best to confuse and at worst mislead at a time when tensions are high and need for help is great.
Read Ethical Responsibility in Publishing Research Results on Covid-19 Treatments
Bioethics Forum Essay

A Responsible Death

As debates continue about the decisions people make about how to die, I wish to draw wider attention to the death of Paul Drier. There was little extraordinary about his death. He was a widower, had suffered from multiple health problems, and had been on kidney dialysis for 18 months. Considered to be too ill to qualify for a transplant, he decided to end dialysis. Two aspects of Mr. Drier’s death seem worth putting on record for bioethicists to remember.
Read A Responsible Death
Bioethics Forum Essay

Transcending Borders in the Ethical Oversight of Human Genome Editing

The bioethics and legal communities must come together to find ways to move with the same ease of the scientific research community--to transcend the geopolitical borders and jurisdictional concerns that make international regulation so difficult.
Read Transcending Borders in the Ethical Oversight of Human Genome Editing
Bioethics Forum Essay
stethoscope

Is Medical Aid in Dying a Human Right?

The Kings County Medical Society in New York recently hosted a brunch with New York State legislators. One of the guests was Richard Gottfried, chair of the New York State Assembly Health Committee, who is cosponsoring A2694, a bill legalizing medical aid in dying (MAID). As a medical oncologist with 30 years’ experience treating seriously ill patients, I have concerns about it, and I expressed them to Gottfried.
Read Is Medical Aid in Dying a Human Right?
Bioethics Forum Essay

Should Pandora’s Brain Be Regulated?

The creation of humanlike intelligence in a nonbiological being would be the greatest achievement in human history. Many experts believe this will happen within decades. What role should, or could, regulatory bodies play?
Read Should Pandora’s Brain Be Regulated?
Bioethics Forum Essay

What’s Wrong with a Fertility Doctor Using His Own Sperm?

It was unethical for a fertility doctor to use his own sperm to inseminate patients without their consent. But what are the legal harms to the women? To their children?
Read What’s Wrong with a Fertility Doctor Using His Own Sperm?
Bioethics Forum Essay
Person Getting a Shot

Navigating Ethics Review of Human Infection Trials With Zika

Human infection challenge studies, which deliberately expose healthy volunteers to disease-causing infectious agents under carefully controlled conditions, offer a valuable method of biomedical research aimed at efficient initial efficacy testing...
Read Navigating Ethics Review of Human Infection Trials With Zika
Bioethics Forum Essay
old woman in pink on a computer screen

The 21st Century Cures Act Sparks Values Debate

On December 13th, President Obama signed the 21st Century Cures Act, a bipartisan, multidimensional health research and development bill.  The act allocates $4.8 billion to the National Institutes of Health...
Read The 21st Century Cures Act Sparks Values Debate
Bioethics Forum Essay

When Endemic Disparities Catch the Pandemic Flu: Echoes of Kubler-Ross and Rawls

Read When Endemic Disparities Catch the Pandemic Flu: Echoes of Kubler-Ross and Rawls
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